Victorian Crafts
Add a charming touch to your Christmas with these handmade items.
If Pinterest had been available to the Victorians, I have no doubt it would've been all the rage. Victorians, you see, loved to do crafts…leastwise amongst the leisure classes. Young ladies were expected to excel at sewing, painting, and sketching. Needlework (embroidery, knitting, crocheting) was the most common form of craftwork, but all sorts of paper arts were widespread as well (such as folding and scrapbooking).
One of the most unique pieces of artwork was the tradition of hair art. Yeah, you read that right. These people were big on weaving bits of hair and making framed pictures out of them. Even creepier to our modern sensibilities is the idea of using the hair of a loved one to make a piece of jewelry as a memento for when they died.
But don't panic, the crafts I'll share with you today have nothing to do with hair. I much prefer paper crafts. After tooling the internet for you, I found 3 great sites for you to visit to create your own Victorian Christmas ornaments. Sure, its only September, but if you get started now you'll have some fun new decor for the holidays.
A Victorian Tussie Mussie
Traditionally a tussie mussie is a small bundle of flowers, but this site goes above and beyond by showing you how to create a cute little cone made of paper and filling it not with flowers but with small Christmas items. This could even work as a small Christmas stocking.
Scrap Paper Ornaments
Give your tree a little variety this year by adding on some homemade paper ornaments. You can use scrap paper or visit Hobby Lobby to pick up some unique patterned paper. Music scores would be awesome for this as well.
Martha Stewart Ornaments
Let the queen of crafts herself show you how to make some sweet 19th century decorations. This one is a video showing you exactly how to do it.
But before you toodle off to get all crafty on me, don't forget to sign up for one of twelve signed copies of 12 Days at Bleakly Manor…